Axicabtagene ciloleucel (Yescarta)

Mechanism of action

From the NCI Drug Dictionary: A preparation of autologous peripheral blood T-lymphocytes (PBTL) that have been transduced with a gammaretroviral vector expressing a chimeric antigen receptor (CAR) consisting of an anti-CD19 single chain variable fragment (scFv) coupled to the costimulatory signaling domain CD28 and the zeta chain of the T-cell receptor (TCR)/CD3 complex (CD3 zeta), with potential immunostimulating and antineoplastic activities. Upon intravenous infusion and re-introduction of axicabtagene ciloleucel into the patient, these cells bind to and induce selective toxicity in CD19-expressing tumor cells.

Preliminary data

Diffuse large B-cell lymphoma

1. Phase 1: Locke FL, Neelapu SS, Bartlett NL, Siddiqi T, Chavez JC, Hosing CM, Ghobadi A, Budde LE, Bot A, Rossi JM, Jiang Y, Xue AX, Elias M, Aycock J, Wiezorek J, Go WY. Phase 1 results of ZUMA-1: A multicenter study of KTE-C19 anti-CD19 CAR T cell therapy in refractory aggressive lymphoma. Mol Ther. 2017 Jan 4;25(1):285-295. Epub 2017 Jan 4. link to original article PubMed

Also known as

anti-CD19/CD28/CD3zeta CAR gammaretroviral vector-transduced autologous T lymphocytes KTE-C19, autologous anti-CD19 CAR-positive T lymphocytes KTE-C19, KTE-C19 CAR